Letter-box.



PATENTED MAR. 10, 1903.

B. W. PARKER.

LETTER BOX. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 26, 1900; RENEWED FEB. M 1903.

N0 MODEL.

BENJAMIN \V. PARKER, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

LETTER-BOX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 722,323, dated March 10, 1903.

Application filed March 26, 1900. Renewed February 11,1903. Serial No. 142,978. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN W. PARKER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cinciunati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Letter-Boxes, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specillcation.

My invention relates to the ordinary letterboxes now in use by the Government and attached to posts on street-corners or in other places of convenience to receive letters that are dropped into them to be mailed, and which boxes are presumably only accessible to the letter-carriers, who collect the letters from time to time and take them to the postoffice, where they are mailed; and it has for its object the application to such letter-boxes of a safety device applied near the lid of the box, through which the letters are inserted to be dropped into the box to prevent the abstraction of said letters through said lid by any conceivable means and whereby when a letter is once mailed in a box thus equipped with my improvement it cannot be taken therefrom except through the usual door of the box, which is locked by a padlock, the key whereof is only in the possession of the carrier whose duty itis to collect the letters.

The novelty of my invention will be hereinafter more fully set forth, and specifically pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of a letter-box equipped with my improved safety device and with the lid through which the letters are dropped closed. Fig. 2 is a corresponding view with the lid open in position to receive a letter to be dropped into the box. Fig. 3 is a sectional rear elevation of the box at its upper part, showing the relative position of the interlocking fingers or serrations.

The same letters of reference are used to indicate identical parts in all the figures.

A represents the letter-box, of usual construction, which is rectangular in form at its lower part, with upper rounded sides Ct b and a surmounting hood or cover 0, curved as shown. The lid B snugly fits the mouth of the box between the hood 0 and the curved portion ctand is pivoted to the latter, as at d, and it is also provided with a finger-piece c for pullingit open to the position shown in Fig. 2 in order to insert a letter. There is an incline f, forming part of the lid, which in inclined downwardly and rearwardly within the box, and at the ends there are side pieces g, uniting the lid and this inclined portion, the whole forming a chute for the dropping of the letters. The inclinefat its lower edge is serrated or provided with teeth or fingers 71, which when the lid is opened, as seen in Fig. 2, are brought up and come closely between similar serrations or fingers t, preferably curved rearwardly, as shown, and secured to or forming part of an upper solid piecej, extending the entire width of the box and attached in any suitable manner to its top, as seen in Figs. 1 and 2.

Heretofore in the ordinary boxes the inclinef was a flat unbroken plate extending in the same plane with the lid 13, and it was a comparatively easy matter forletter-thieves to partially open the lid and drop therein a cord or wire, having at its lower end a piece of rubber or other substance coated with adhesive matter, which coming in contact with a letter in the bottom of the box would adhere thereto and upon drawing up the cord or wire carefully the letter would be raised with it, and by careful manipulation it could be gotten up into the throat of the box until the fingers of the letter-thief could grasp it and draw it out. In this way very many letter-boxes throughout the country have been pilfered of their contents without the knowledge of the postal authorities; but by the use of my safety appliance, which is exceedingly simple and cheap in construction, such a method of extracting letters from a box is rendered absolutely impossible, for the moment that the lid is opened to introduce the letter which is to be dropped the fingers or serrations h i become interlocked, as seen in Fig. 2, and then upon closing the lid the letter thus deposited is dropped into the box; but should it be attempted to partially open the lid and insert a cord or wire with its adhesive button and a letter should be caught thereon the drawing up of the cord or wire would immediately bring the letterthief to grief, for either his cord or wire IOU would be at once caught between the serrations or fingers of the interlocked parts h i and he could not draw it out at all or else if he got the letter up far enough to come in contact with the fingers i it would be immediately detached from his adhesive button and drop to the bottom of the box again. In short, with this safety device it is impossible to extract a letter once dropped into the box up and out through the opening at the lid where it was deposited.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim In a letter-box, the combination of a vertical throat-opening, a closinglid therefor hinged at the lower edge of said opening, a plate projecting from the hinged edge of said lid downward within the box and provided at its lower edge with serrations or fingers, said lid and plate forming an integral dropping-chute, a second plate extending across the upper end of the box within the same and just in rear of the lid when closed, said plate being curved rearwardly and provided at its lower edge with serrations or fingers adapted to be engaged by the serrations or fingers of the first-mentioned plate when the lid is opened and to be disengaged therefrom when the lid is closed, substantially in the manner and for the purpose specified.

BENJAMIN W. PARKER.

WVitnesses:

LEANDER D. OLIVER, EDWARD PEoK. 

